Irish Americans soon developed networks of
kith and kin that helped to smooth the way for later immigrants. "Should
your Brother Paddy Come to America," wrote an Irish American workingman to
a relative in Ireland, "he can rely on his Cousins to promote his
interests in Procuring work." The networks were not just familial. Irish
trade unionists and leaders and Irish politicians illustrate nicely the
intimate connection that can exist between economics and politics. Even
today, one of the crucial points of friction between ethnic American
skilled workers and affirmative action programs is the strong feeling that
a son or a brother's son should be able to inherit the father's or uncle's
union card -- and the job that goes with it.
The contributions of Irish Americans -- along with those of other ethnics from the British Isles, to the American labor movement are hard to overestimate. From an early second-generation Irish American like Terrence V. Powderly (1849 - 1924), longtime grand master workman of the Knights of Labor and later Commissioner General of Immigration, to the fiery immigrant Michael J. Quill (1905 - 66), leader of New York City's transport workers, Irish men have been significantly overrepresented among American labor leaders, particularly in the American Federation of Labor which organized almost exclusively among skilled workers. And although Irish Americans were concentrated in the skilled trades in the East, pockets of Irish American trade unionism existed in the Far West in places as disparate as Butte, Montana, and San Francisco. Conversely, Irish American women were not particularly prominent among female trade unionists, most of whom came from the needle trades where Irish were not well represented, but there were some prominent radicals, the most noted of whom was the American communist leader, Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1890 -1964).
